DAVID WHEELER: Science and technology education picks up steam

Monday

May 27, 2013 at 12:01 AMMay 27, 2013 at 1:31 PM

One of the hottest topics in education today is STEM – science, technology, engineering, and math. Everywhere I look, there are grants, professional development opportunities and symposiums designed to help schools teach more math and science. And plenty of folks are (correctly) looking to vocational schools to help encourage these much-needed skill sets.

David Wheeler

One of the hottest topics in education today is STEM – science, technology, engineering, and math. Everywhere I look, there are grants, professional development opportunities and symposiums designed to help schools teach more math and science. And plenty of folks are (correctly) looking to vocational schools to help encourage these much-needed skill sets.

In March as part of his statewide STEM tour, Lt. Governor Murray visited Southeastern Regional and talked about the need for vocational education to help provide the scientists and engineers capable of working in a global economy. In May, Congressman Kennedy hosted a STEM Summit at our school and invited vocational and technical school administrators to discuss all things STEM including providing examples of how vocational education helps teach these skills.

As important as STEM skills are, I can't help but think that it's becoming a lopsided conversation. Of course we need more doctors and computer scientists. But we need more creative people too, like designers and wordsmiths, the very people who help us utilize and understand technology. Where would the iPhone be without its sleek design? How would we process today's avalanche of information in a quick and reliable manner without journalists, teachers and writers to help us?

Yet sadly, these are some of the lowest paying professions around. Teachers start at less than $40k annually in many places. Entry-level journalists are paid even less. And writers, as everyone knows, pretty much start out working for free these days.

Why, given our instant access to information and all our technological advancements are these “less-technical” skills so undervalued in our society? In Finland, a country that consistently ranks among the best-educated in the world, teacher candidates are culled from the top 10% of college applicants. Yet here in the United States, it is decidedly less difficult to gain entry to an educator preparation program.

One reason for this lopsidedness is obvious: people in the sciences directly contribute to the economy, whereas teachers and creative types do so more indirectly. David Karp, founder of Tumblr, created 175 jobs and recently sold his company to Yahoo for $1.1 billion. It’s easy to measure the economic impact of this accomplishment. It’s harder to assess the impact of whoever it was that helped Karp and his team learn programming code or create attractive consumer-friendly designs. Still, there’s a lot of truth to the saying that teaching is the profession that creates all other professions.

At the groundbreaking ceremony for our school renovation project last year, state Treasurer Steve Grossman said something that’s stuck with me. Instead of calling for STEM skills, he said we should be calling for “STEAM skills”, meaning science, technology, engineering, arts, and math.” He attributed the addition of “the arts” to his wife, although I’ve heard it from other people as well.

This makes perfect sense to me. We need to do a better job of incorporating creative thought into the sciences. We also need to do a better job recognizing the crucial role our teachers and schools play in shaping the economy of the future. It’s time to expand the STEM conversation to focus on how we interpret and use scientific knowledge instead of solely on how we create it.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.